2010 Royal Rumble
Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Men’s Royal Rumble 2010
Winner
Edge
entered at number 29
- Match time
- 49:24
- Entrants
- 30
- Most eliminations
- 6 Shawn Michaels
- Longest time in match
- 27:11 John Cena
- 1 Dolph Ziggler
- 2 Evan Bourne
- 3 CM Punk
- 4 JTG
- 5 The Great Khali
- 6 Beth Phoenix
- 7 Zack Ryder
- 8 Triple H
- 9 Drew McIntyre
- 10 Ted DiBiase Jr.
- 11 John Morrison
- 12 Kane
- 13 Cody Rhodes
- 14 MVP
- 15 Carlito
- 16 The Miz
- 17 Matt Hardy
- 18 Shawn Michaels
- 19 John Cena
- 20 Shelton Benjamin
- 21 Yoshi Tatsu
- 22 Big Show
- 23 Mark Henry
- 24 Chris Masters
- 25 R-Truth
- 26 Jack Swagger
- 27 Kofi Kingston
- 28 Chris Jericho
- 29 Edge
- 30 Batista
The last five draws are 26 to 30 in this match, and are marked in the chart above. They enter against a field that is already thinning, which is the long-standing argument that a late number is an advantage.
Bar positions are derived, not recorded. No source publishes entry and elimination timestamps; they are solved from entry order, the published times in match and the recorded elimination order. The ring-population curve below reads the same solved times. The times in the table below are as published.
What it led to
Threads that start in this match and pay off later. Editorial rather than computed — each one cites where it comes from.
Michaels fails to win it, and puts his career up to get the match he wants
Michaels could not win the Rumble and could not qualify for the Elimination Chamber, so he cost The Undertaker the World Heavyweight Championship instead to force a rematch of their previous WrestleMania. The Undertaker agreed on one condition: if Michaels lost, he retired.
WrestleMania XXVI 56 days later
The Undertaker beat Shawn Michaels to go 18-0, and Michaels retired
Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker
Source: Wikipedia, retrieved 7 August 2026
Cena throws Batista out, and it starts something
Cena eliminated Batista from the Rumble match, which began the conflict between them. It ran through Batista taking the WWE Championship from Cena at Elimination Chamber on McMahon's order.
WrestleMania XXVI 56 days later
John Cena beat Batista to regain the WWE Championship
Source: Wikipedia, retrieved 7 August 2026
Entry and elimination times are derived, not recorded: no source publishes them. They are solved from entry order, published times in match and the recorded elimination order, around a nominal 93-second interval. Times in match are as published.
Sources: wikipedia (primary), darrenswinloss